Meat workers are keen for the government to pass the Health & Safety Reform Bill and particularly the provisions around worker participation. While some Meat Industry employers take health & safety and worker participation seriously, others see it as a form of intrusion on their right to manage, or even a threat from unions! The consequences can be awful for workers.

The weak attempt by the government to regulate around zero hours contracts has left many disappointed, and the problem of insecure hours still a wide open wound for many workers. Front of mind for meat workers during these winter months are the seasonal lay-offs, when they are expected to find other work while the plant shuts down.

It doesn’t have to be the “it’s our way or the highway” model that Talley’s owned meat companies practice - where voice through a union is to be suppressed and disciplinary action taken against union members who seek to advance their human rights to join unions and organise.

So say these workers at AFFCO Rangiuru, who this week have had to make the most awful decision - sign an unfair individual agreement, or have no job. But they're not giving up. The Meat Workers Union asked the Employment Court to intervene with an injunction, but Judge Colgan declined it on the "balance of convenience". The substantive case is due to be heard by a full panel of Employment Court Judges as soon as possible.

On Tuesday 16th June, the Employment Court will decide whether AFFCO Talley in Rangiuru can force workers to accept new, inferior individual agreements if they want to return to work. The Meat Workers Union says its a lockout. The company says they are new workers, despite thousands of years of combined service. These are brave, hard working people, who do a tough job in an important industry. We hope you will support them.

Three years after the Talley’s owned AFFCO Meat works locked out workers for 89 days at all of its North Island plants, meat workers at their site in Rangiuru are preparing to argue in court that the company is trying to lock them out again.

It’s only a couple of weeks since the head of the Talley’s Group, Sir Peter Talley, was knighted for services to business and philanthropy. But you have to wonder what the thousands of years of collective service of hard working union members in the Talley’s owned meat works at Rangiuru count for with the latest action by Sir Peter’s company AFFCO.

Some people might think the Meat Workers Union is obsessed with Talley's.

That's probably because the work representing our members in the Talley's owned companies, including AFFCO, Land Meats and South Pacific Meats take up a great deal more time than that of any other meat company in New Zealand.

The NZ Meat Workers Union has a long history and relationship with employers and other players in the Meat Industry.

The 7th budget delivered by Finance Minister Bill English for the National Government could deliver for meat workers if there was a bit of imagination around the Cabinet table. Meat Workers, the hard working people who help make one of our most important export industries successful have a couple of ideas, if only the government were willing to listen.

Tea breaks were in the news recently when the National Government's anti-worker laws changed. The Meat Industry Association that represents most meat companies supported the changes to "more flexible rest and meal breaks". The latest Employment Authority decision between the NZMWU and Lean Meats shows just what can happen when proper breaks are substituted with "compensatory measures" instead of a proper break.